System and method of ongoing evaluation reporting and analysis

ABSTRACT

A research and development system that gathers feedback from patients and healthcare providers with respect to the their experience with various aspects of a supplier&#39;s products in order to tabulate, consolidate, compare and analyze the data received rapidly and efficiently, and which can be used on successive iterations to determine future products and services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to product development. It appliesparticularly to the analysis of feedback from customers, patients andhealthcare providers to product suppliers, and will be described withparticular reference thereto.

2. Background

Much of the research and development in the industry is currently doneon an infrequent basis with limited customer feedback. Surveys areperiodically sent out to a limited pool of customers with marginalquality feedback, relative to collection rates. This leads to lowerquality products and substantial lag time in reacting to customers everchanging needs. Most companies doing traditional, episodic, and limitedcustomer surveys take years to release new products and enhance existingproducts and services. This type of traditional market research anddevelopment results in: (1) limited success in discovering any gaps inthe product portfolio, (2) considerable lag time in discovering productinconsistencies and quality issues, (3) prolonged development cycles,(4) poor customer satisfaction and retention, and (5) increaseddevelopment cost, and therefore, increased cost to the customer.

Known solutions in the art include paper based periodic customersurveys, periodic telephone surveys, door to door/in-person surveys andperiodic internet spam surveys.

The present invention produces a quicker, more accurate, statisticallysuperior, analytically and subjective based research product developmentsystem.

The present invention is a more efficient, statistically superior,product research and development system that efficiently andcontinuously collects high quality analytical and subjective customerdata. Moreover, the continuous monitoring aspect of the system (enabledthrough a computer communication system) improves productivity, whilereducing cost. The present invention is superior, faster and cheaperthan other research and development systems.

Additionally, this system is suitable for dietary supplements becausethe Food and Drug Administration does not require dietary supplements toundergo pre-market approval for safety and efficacy. Instead, the FDArelies mostly on its adverse event reporting system to identify safetyproblems. However, because reporting is entirely voluntary, adverseevent reporting systems typically detect only a small proportion of theevents that occur. One FDA-commissioned study estimated that less than 1percent of all adverse events associated with dietary supplements areactually reported.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Throughout the description of the invention the terms “patient” and“healthcare provider,” “doctor,” or “physician” will be used. However,the term “patient” is defined herein to also mean other customers ofsupplements and healthcare services, regardless of whether a patientdoctor relationship attaches. Similarly, the terms “healthcareprovider,” “doctor,” or “physician” are defined herein to also meanother providers of healthcare services, regardless of whether a patientdoctor relationship attaches.

Patients who have purchased items from a supplier whose information andemail addresses are stored in the system and the above noted healthcareproviders are extended email invitations to complete linked surveys.

Patients and healthcare providers report requested information via thesystem. Forms with questions and free text field to enter data collectedare provided. Once the forms are completed, they are sent via theInternet and analyzed. This information is utilized to enhance currentproducts/services and create new innovative products/services.

The present invention utilizes the Internet and gathers feedback frompatients and healthcare providers with respect to the their experiencewith various aspects of a company's products and services in order totabulate, consolidate, compare and analyze the data received which isused to determine future products and services.

The process starts with the healthcare providers receiving feedback fromtheir patients relative to their experience with subject products.Healthcare providers are asked to gather a combination of analytical andsubjective patient experience data. The healthcare providers enter thisdata into a form that may be accessed via the Internet. The healthcareproviders also enter their own impressions and opinions relative to thesubject products and services.

After the data has been fully analyzed, the information available fromthe system is used to determine characteristics of a future productpipeline, including enhancements to current products as well developingnew product additions to the portfolio.

The reporting mechanism of the system results in measurements that helpto understand the quality and capability of a product, including anindex of qualities against a Six Sigma yardstick. Accordingly, thisinvention helps assure the development and changes to products andadditional product lines based on verifiable data, rather thanassumptions. As these changes come to market, the system's cycle ofcontinuous patient and healthcare provider feedback and resultantimprovement continues.

The system produces quantifiable patient and healthcare providerfeedback that can be immediately implemented resulting in sustainedquality improvement.

Furthermore, the present invention will accelerate the improvement inall aspects of the business process from product development to customerservice by improving quality and reducing waste and defects.

The system gathers demographics from every patient and the associatedhealthcare provider that buys a product from the system.

The system creates survey questions for patients and healthcareproviders that can be customized to a specific product or service.

The system may also identify potential survey takers by captureddemographic information and extend surveys to only those whosedemographics/experience would be most wanted with respect to a productor service.

The present system tabulates and analyzes the data with respect todemographics of its participants and survey responses for the companyhosting and administering the system and can also be made available toany secondary client interested in aggregating specific survey responsestatistics through the defined pool of customers/patients and healthcareproviders of the hosting company that will serve as surveyors.

The present system also provides a compensation mechanism for which anhonorarium or other compensation can be provided to the surveyors tosupport product distribution and feedback compliance.

Accordingly, the present system will solve the lack of adverse reportingwith respect to nutritional supplements. It will provide all thenecessary information to evaluate an event including consumer, product,medical and manufacturer information as well as data needed to analyzeany trends.

The present invention's reporting mechanism also results in specificmeasurements that help with understanding the qualities and capabilitiesof a product, and may index those qualities against a Six Sigmayardstick.

The present system is able to gather, tabulate, consolidate, compare andanalyze the data received from multiple physicians.

Once the data is analyzed, the information will be used to determine thecharacteristics of future products created with the benefit of theinformation obtained by the system, including enhancements to currentproducts and development of new product additions to a supplier'sportfolio.

Accordingly, one objective of the present invention is to help assurethat development and changes to current products and additional productlines are based on verifiable data, rather than assumptions. The methodof continuous patient and healthcare provider feedback may result inconstant product improvement.

Furthermore, the data-driven approach of the present invention allowsfor an accurate understanding of the customer's (patients and healthcareproviders) transaction lifecycle. With this data, areas wheresignificant value or improvement can be identified.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide acceleratedproduct improvement in all aspects from price to product development tocustomer service by improving quality and reducing waste and defects.

Yet another objective of the present invention is a more efficient,statistically superior, product research and development system thatefficiently and continuously collects high quality analytical andsubjective customer data. Moreover, the continuous monitoring aspect ofthe system drastically reduces cycle time and improves productivity,while reducing cost.

Other objectives include the creation of a real time monitoring anddevelopment feedback loop between healthcare provider, patient andcompany erasing traditional product development gaps, elimination ofcurrent product issues and inconsistencies through constant monitoring,and elimination of lag from traditional new product to market researchperiods.

Other objectives include the provision of a quality feedback fromcritical healthcare provider constituency, continuous monitoring ofcustomer and product success rates, provision of patient level data,consideration of analytical and subjective data to capture full customerexperience, provision of the ability for a product supplier topersonalize products quickly, reduction of overall cycle time forproduct development, provision of quick reaction time to productproblems/issues, and provision of a broader customer base.

The present invention fulfills these objectives, as well as other needsand objectives, as will be apparent from the following description ofthe present invention. Still further advantages of the present inventionwill become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon readingand understanding the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may take form in various components and arrangements ofcomponents, and in various steps and arrangements of steps. The drawingsare only for purposes of illustrating preferred embodiments and are notto be construed as limiting the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the system of the invention for theobtainment and analysis of feedback from healthcare providers andpatients.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagram of the system of the invention for theobtainment and analysis of feedback from healthcare providers andpatients.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart diagram of the patient-healthcare provider linkportion of the system of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram of the supplier's survey developmentportion of the system of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart diagram of the survey selection and dataacquisition portions of the system of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart diagram of the survey analysis portion of thesystem of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart diagram of the report generation portion of thesystem of the invention.

FIGS. 8 a and 8 b are a sample survey generated by the system of theinvention.

FIGS. 9 a and 9 b are a sample survey generated by the system of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 schematically depicts a survey production, analysis and messagingsystem 100 configured for the obtainment and analysis of feedback fromhealthcare providers and patients. The system 100 can include a hostserver 110 configured for communicative coupling with an administrator120 over a computer communications network 130 to different computingdevices for different users of the system. The administrator 120 may becoupled to the host server directly or over a computer communicationsnetwork 130. Similarly, the other users such as suppliers 140,healthcare providers 150 and patients 160 may be coupled to the hostserver 110 directly or over a computer communications network 130. Thehost server 110 may support the operation of the system 100; however,other means for supporting the operation of a system over a computercommunications network are known in the art.

FIG. 2 provides a general flow chart of the data flow for information inthe system 200. As shown the program 210 provides interaction betweenthe administrator 220, the supplier 230, the healthcare provider 240 andthe patient 250. As shown, the program 210 includes several steps,including product selection, demographic selection, survey development,survey selection and data acquisition, survey analysis, reportgeneration and compensation/honorarium. The supplier 230 provides surveyparameters for the program 210 and the program 210 then uses that datato create a survey form for selection and editing, if needed, by thesupplier 230. The survey form is then provided to the healthcareprovider 240 or the patient 250, or both by means such as email oraccess to a web page on a computer communications network. The responsesto the survey by the healthcare provider 240 or patient 250, or both, isthen input into the program 210. An honorarium or other compensation maybe provided to the healthcare provider 240 or patient 250, or both, forparticipation in one or more surveys.

In addition, the responses provide information which can lead toimprovements in the product supplied to the supplier 230, and a newsurvey may be taken regarding the new product. Several iterations mayoccur, where a survey is used for one or more features of the product,resulting in a more improved product, or one or more products with moreadvantageous features.

FIG. 3. illustrates a login process of the system 300 for the patient inthe system to connect the patient with the healthcare provider. Asshown, a login screen 310 or other equivalent means for accessing thesystem is provided. An order 320 is made for a particular product 320 bythe patient or the healthcare provider. The order 320 may be made byeither visiting the administrator's or supplier's website 330 or bydialing a customer service number 340 or by equivalent means. In oneembodiment, the patient is identified and correlated with the patient'shealthcare provider whose identity has already been entered in thesystem. Once the patient has been identified as being in the care of thehealthcare provider, the patient account is set up 350, and the patientis registered with the program and the patient is linked with theassociated healthcare provider 360.

FIG. 4 illustrates the survey development portion of the system 400. Inthis portion, the administrator or supplier may select the product to bethe subject of a survey 410. The selector then selects the desireddemographics of the healthcare providers who will be responding to thesurveys 420. The selector then selects desired questions 430 for thesurvey. The questions 430 may be included in a list, or the selector mayprovide original questions to be placed on the survey, or a combinationmay be used. If appropriate, the selector then selects the desiredresponse options 440 for the survey taker. Such options 440 may includemultiple choices, ranked answers, free text to be supplied by the surveytaker, or the like. Then the selector may assign weighted values to theresponses for scoring of the results 450 of the surveys. In addition,the selector may assign an honorarium or amount of compensation 460 forthe healthcare provider or the patient, or both. In one embodiment, adata analysis collection and analysis program such as SharePoint may beused to prepare the survey of the system.

FIG. 5 illustrates the survey selection and data acquisition portion ofthe system 500. The selector may select a start date and an end date forthe survey 510. The selector then may select desired demographics forthe patient 520. Such demographics may include the patient's name,healthcare provider's name, gender, age, income level, address, productname, quantity prescribed or recommended, order date, shipping method,and the like. A display may be provided for the selector to providepreselected demographic requirements for each date range selected at510.

Once the demographic selection 520 has been completed, the selector thenmay assign surveys 530 to be sent to one or more healthcare providers,patients or both. An email invitation 540 may be generated with eachsurvey created. The email 540 may contain a link to a website having theindividually created survey. Additionally, a tracking ID may be includedfor each survey to confirm that the right person is responding to theright survey.

If no response is provided within a predetermined time limit, an emailmay be resent one or more times 550 to the healthcare provider orpatient taking the survey. For example, follow up emails may be sentafter 2 and 4 weeks. After another preselected time, the reminders maystop, and access to the website having the survey may be denied.

If, however, the survey is answered to a predetermined amount ofcompletion, then additional information 560 may be obtained from thehealthcare provider to aid in the analysis of the responses to thesurvey 570. An analysis 570 can then be made of the data obtained fromthe patient, and, if applicable, the healthcare provider. Once thesurvey work has properly been completed, the system then can credit thepatient and/or the healthcare provider for any predeterminedcompensation or honorarium due 580 for participation.

FIG. 6 provides a detail of the steps the considerations in the surveyanalysis 600. The analysis 600 may first include a calculation ofresponders versus non-responders 610. Then, sorting may occur bydemographics 620. Once demographic sorting 620 is accomplished, theresponses themselves are considered. The responses may includedemographic responses 630 by the healthcare provider or patient,weighted value responses 640, and free text responses 650. Through thecomparative analysis of the responses, a collective analysis 660 can bemade.

FIG. 7 provides a detailed flow chart of the report generation step ofthe system 700. The supplier or administrator may view responsestatistics 710 in total. Then, the system 700 may make availablestatistics related to free text responses 720 and related todemographics and/or category of the product surveyed 730. The statisticsview analysis report 740 in this step may be printed out, displayed on agraphical user interface, or the like. Quickbooks and Excel andequivalent database management programs may be adapted to provide thereporting step of the system.

FIGS. 8 a, 8 b and 9 provide examples of surveys that may be generatedby the invention 100. In FIGS. 8 a and 8 b, a survey 800 is shownproviding choices for weighted value responses to questions related to aproduct.

In this example, the survey 800 is directed to the healthcare provider,and a free text field is provided for inclusion of the healthcareprovider's comments relative to the patient or the patient's comments,if the patient has provided any. In this example, the product is aprenatal vitamin and supplement; however, other products may be thesubject of the survey. Similarly, FIG. 9 shows a different survey 900for obtaining information on calcium chocolate chews.

As noted above, a product may be altered based upon information obtainedby the surveys of this system, and new analysis may be made on surveysregarding the altered product. Trends may be revealed as to the efficacyof different alterations which may not be obtained through othersystems.

In operation of the system, emails may be sent to the healthcareproviders with a link to the system to make access to the system easyand convenient. At the link forms may be provided by the system withquestions, and free text fields to enter data collected may be providedto the healthcare provider. Once the forms are completed by thehealthcare provider they may be sent via the computer communicationsystem and analyzed. The analysis may be used in conjunction with theforms submitted by other healthcare providers relating to the same orsimilar products. The information obtained is utilized to enhancecurrent products and create new innovative products.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the presentinvention is not limited to what has been particularly shown anddescribed herein above. In addition, unless mention was made above tothe contrary, it should be noted that the accompanying drawings are notto scale. A variety of modifications and variations are possible inlight of the above teachings without departing from the scope and spiritof the invention.

1. A method for a product supplier to gather feedback from healthcareproviders and patients, comprising: providing on-line surveys to thehealthcare providers and patients; obtaining responses to the on-linesurveys from the healthcare providers and patients; and providing theability for healthcare providers and patients to qualify for anhonorarium linked to the submission of one or more responses to theon-line survey.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the stepsof providing a registration link to patients to link patients torespective healthcare providers.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein thestep of providing a registration link is providing a toll free telephonenumber and a link on a webpage.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thestep of providing on-line surveys is customizable by the productsupplier.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providingon-line surveys is only taken for patients having preselecteddemographics.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein text in questions in theon-line survey are fully customizable.
 7. The method of claim 4, whereinquestions in the on-line survey are given weighted values.
 8. A computerprogram product comprising a computer usable medium embodying computerusable program code for gathering feedback from healthcare providers andpatients, comprising: computer usable program code for providing on-linesurveys to the healthcare providers and patients; computer usableprogram code for obtaining responses to the on-line surveys from thehealthcare providers and patients; and computer usable program code forproviding the ability for healthcare providers and patients to qualifyfor an honorarium to linked to the submission of one or more responsesto the on-line survey.
 9. The computer program product of claim 8,further comprising computer usable program code for providing aregistration link to patients to link patients to respective healthcareproviders.
 10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein thecomputer usable program code for providing on-line surveys furthercomprises computer usable program code for customization of the on-linesurvey by the product supplier.
 11. The computer program product ofclaim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for providing on-linesurveys further comprises computer usable program code whereby on-linesurveys are only provided to patients having preselected demographics.12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computerusable program code for customization of the on-line survey furthercomprises computer usable program code for fully customizing text inquestions in the on-line survey.
 13. The computer program product ofclaim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for customization ofthe on-line survey further comprises computer usable program code forgiving questions in the on-line survey weighted values.
 14. A researchand development data processing system for product suppliers comprising:a survey creation application executing in a host server; a survey loginelement for patients; a survey customization element for productsuppliers; an honorarium qualification element; and a data store ofsurvey responses.
 15. The research and development data processingsystem of claim 14, further comprising a demographic preselectionelement.
 16. The research and development data processing system ofclaim 14, wherein the survey customization element further comprises afull text customization element.
 17. The research and development dataprocessing system of claim 16, wherein the survey creation applicationfurther comprises a question weighting element for each survey.
 18. Theresearch and development data processing system of claim 14, furthercomprising a tracking element for each survey created.